Joe, for a couple of easy credits (in the late '50's) I took a course in Movie Appreciation. The first film we saw was "Birth of a Nation." The instructor gave a test on the film at the next class meeting, and the first question was something like "Discuss the use of folk music in the sound track which has been added to the film." I wrote, among other things, that the music which accompanied the scenes of "happy slaves" early in the film ("Turkey in the Straw"?) was chosen to romanticize slavery, and mournful music accompanied the later scenes of black people lost without "the comfortable protection of slavery"--summarizing that the music was chosen to accentuate the film's racism. I got no points for my answer, just a comment from the teacher that audiences throughout the South still were thrilled by this wonderful work of art.

--seed